New Dragonborn expansion brings Skyrim DLC to PlayStation 3

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is already more than one year old. How quickly those little dragon slayers grow up! Even though Bethesda the publisher is hard at work supporting studios working on properties like Dishonored, the lost Prey 2, and even The Elder Scrolls Online, the core Bethesda studio remains hard at work on its best-selling RPG, creating new downloadable expansions. The latest DLC for Skyrim, called Dragonborn, will be out this week on Xbox Live bringing with it a host of new content. As the studio says, though, players on other platforms don’t need to fret. Dragonborn won’t stay an Xbox exclusive for long.

“We’re less than 24 hours away from unleashing Skyrim’s next add-on Dragonborn on Xbox Live,” reads an update at Bethesda’s official blog, “It’s one of our most ambitious add-ons ever and we’re excited for everyone to play it. We’re also happy to announce Dragonborn will be available on PS3 and PC early next year.”

That PlayStation 3 release is actually the biggest news in Bethesda’s announcement. Since the studio began releasing downloadable content for Skyrim in July, starting with Dawnguard for Xbox Live, Bethesda’s has had trouble bringing its expansions to Sony platforms. Though they’ve gone onto the PC, Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and even certain features introduced in patches for the game have skipped Sony’s PlayStation 3, but not for lack of trying.

“Skyrim is a massive and dynamic game that requires a lot of resources, and things get much more complex when you’re talking about sizable content like Dawnguard,” explained the studio in August, “We have tried a number of things, but none solve the issue enough to make Dawnguard good for everyone. The PS3 is a powerful system, and we’re working hard to deliver the content you guys want. Dawnguard is obviously not the only DLC we’ve been working on either, so this issue of adding content gets even more complicated. This is not a problem we’re positive we can solve, but we are working together with Sony to try to bring you this content.”

Dragonborn’s release on PS3 isn’t a guarantee that Dawnguard or Hearthfire will be released on the console, but it does suggest that Bethesda’s work alongside Sony has helped work around the technological hurdles that were keeping the content locked to Windows-based platforms.

Bethesda’s been quiet about what features will be in Dragonborn but Eurogamer reported over the weekend that it will have dragon riding in it. About time!